Symballousa: Mary Keeps and Ponders the Words in Her Heart

Symballousa: the Greek verb of Lk 2:19 reveals Mary keeping and pondering the words of God in her heart.

Symballousa Mary: introduction

The term symballousa Mary refers to Lk 2:19: “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.” The Greek verb symballousa (from symballein) lies at the center of one of the richest categories of biblical Mariology. Symballousa Mary means Mary who “puts together,” who compares, who ponders.

I. The verb symballein in New Testament Greek

The verb symballein, from which symballousa Mary derives, literally means “to throw together,” “to put together,” “to compare.” Applied to Mary in Lk 2:19, it describes an intense interior activity: Mary receives the events of Jesus’ life and compares them with Scripture, with the prophecies, and with her own experience. Symballousa Mary is Mary the theologian, in the biblical sense of the term.

II. Symballousa Mary and Christian memory

The text of Lk 2:19, with the participle symballousa, shows that Mary is the first memory of the Church. Symballousa Mary keeps in her heart the events of her Son’s life. Luke, in writing his Gospel, depends, according to tradition, on the memory of Mary, a symbol of the whole apostolic tradition.

III. Symballousa Mary in Lk 2:51

Luke repeats the idea in 2:51, after the episode in the Temple when Jesus was twelve: “And his mother kept all these things carefully in her heart.” Symballousa Mary is a constant in the Infancy Gospel. Mary does not always understand immediately, but she keeps, ponders, and compares. This is the fundamental stance of discipleship that symballousa Mary teaches us.

IV. Symballousa Mary as model of the Church

Lumen Gentium 58-65 presents Mary as the model of the Church: in faith, in charity, and in perfect union with Christ. Symballousa Mary is also the model of the Church in meditating on the Word. Lectio divina, unceasing prayer, interior listening: all of this finds its most beautiful point of reference in symballousa Mary.

V. Symballousa Mary and theology today

The concept of symballousa Mary offers contemporary theology a key for rethinking the relationship between Scripture, Tradition, and Marian experience. Symballousa Mary is Mary the theologian, Mary the disciple, Mary the memory of the Church. Explore this more deeply in Benedict XVI’s Verbum Domini, which devotes extraordinary pages to Mary, woman of the Word.

Deepen your studies: explore the Mariology portal, Marian Theology, and the Mariological dictionary of Locus Mariologicus.